Continuous forms leader

ABSTRACT

A leader for use in the printing of continuous business forms assemblies for enabling alignment of the endmost form in the assembly with a printer without requiring the destruction of such form. A Y-shaped member formed of flexible material is employed, the legs of the member receiving the endmost form of a continuous forms assembly for holding the same enabling the base to be properly aligned with the printer and then fed through the printer after alignment has been achieved carrying the continuous forms assembly through the printer. One of the legs of the Yshaped member includes an enlarged cut out exposing the face of the form length held by the legs for printing by the printer.

United States Patent [191 Jan. 29, 1974 Brown CONTINUOUS FORMS LEADER [75] Inventor: William J. Brown, Palatine, Ill. [73] Assignee: Chemplex Company, Rolling Meadows, I11.

[221' Filed: Mar. 30, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 346,355

521 US. or. 226/91 [51] Int. Cl B65h 5/28 [58] Field of Search 226/91, 92, l, 168, 200; 352/235 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS v 2,438,063 3/1948 Lorenz 352/235 X 2,579,581 12/1951 Hustad 226/91 X Primary Examiner-Richard A. Schacher Attorney, Agent, .or FirmH0fgren, Wegner, Allen, Stellman & McCord ABSTRACT A leader for use in the printing of continuous business forms assemblies for enabling alignment of the endmost form in the assembly with a printer without requiring the destruction of such form. A Y-shaped member formed of flexible material is employed, the legs of the member receiving the endmost form of a continuous forms assembly for holding the same en- 3 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures l CONTINUOUS FORMS LEADER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to .a leader for use in the processing of continuous business forms assemblies.

' The most pertinent prior art known to the applicant includes US. Pat. No. 3,462,054 to Foor.

Increasingly, business forms of all sorts are being processed in computerized operations by reason of the more rapid and accurate processing permitted by present day computers. Frequently, such processing includes the inscription of information on individual form lengths of a continuous business formsassembly by a high speed printer which, inturn, is operated by a computer.

In such operations, typically the endmost form length of a continuous business forms assembly is manually introduced into the printer and manipulated until such time as the print hammers of the printer are oriented properly with respect to the particular areas of the form length on which information is to be inscribed. Once such orientation has been achieved, the processing operation is initiated and requires little or no manual attention until the operation is terminated.

One difficulty attendant such a process is that normally the endmost form length of a continuous forms assembly is rendered non-usable by the manual'alignment process. Specifically, as alignmentis sought to be achieved, the printer may be manually jogged to determine whether alignment hasbeen achieved. Of course, if alignment has not been achieved, the information will be improperly located on the form rendering the same non-usable.

In many data processing operations, this difficulty is not a serious one as the individual form length is relatively inexpensive and may simply be discarded if unusable; However, insome types of data-processing, it is impossible to discard an unusable form length without causing a great deal of additional effort, normally, bookkeeping.

I For example, many stock transfers are processed by computers and stock certificates issued after being imprinted by a printer operated by a computer. Frequently, stock certificates are manufactured in continuous form, i.e., each certificate constitutes an individual form length of a continuous business forms assembly, with each individual form length being prenumbered. Of course, when such an individual form length must be discarded, it is necessary to perform a bookkeeping operation indicating that a certificate bearing a particular number has been voided.

In such cases, the usual method of manually aligning the endmost individual form length of a continuous forms assembly in a printer is unsatisfactory because of the additional record keeping generated if the form must be discarded after being rendered unusable by the I alignment process.

2 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is the principal object of the invention to provide a new and improved leader for use with continuous business forms assemblies allowing alignment of the The exemplary embodiment of the invention achieves the foregoing object through a structure including a Y-shaped member, at least the legs of which are formed of flexible material. According to a preferred embodiment, the Y-shaped member is formed by two sheets of flexible material bonded together through a part of their area of contact to define the base of the Y and unbonded throughout the remainder of their area of contact so as to define flexible and separable legs which may be separated to receive the endmost form length of a continuous business forms assembly.

At least one edge of the Y-shaped member is provided with feeding means complementary to the feeding means employed with the printer to be used in processing the continuous forms assembly. Conventionally, a series of pin feed holes will be employed for this purpose on at least one margin and, more usually, on opposed margins.

One of the legs of the Y-shaped member includes an enlarged cut out or notch to expose the face of the individualform length received between the legs for inscription of information by the printer. The width of the Y-shaped member is substantially equal to the width of the continuous business forms assembly with which it is to be used (the width of the continuous business forms assembly being that dimension transverse to the longitudinal extent of the assembly).

' Normally, the Y-shaped member forming the leader will have a length on the order of two form lengths.

In use,'the endmost individual form length of a continuous forms assembly is placed between the legs of the leader and oriented so that pin feed holes in its margins are aligned with the pin feed holes in the margins of the leader. With the form thus held in place with respect to the leader, the base of the leader is then manually fed into the printer and oriented to achieve proper alignment. Once such alignment has been achieved, the data processing operation may be initiated. The first printing on an actual form will occur on the endmost form length of the assembly located between the legs of the leader and only after proper alignment has been achieved. Thus, all individual form lengths processed with the leader are usable, eliminating costly bookkeeping operations required in those instances where the destruction of an individual form length due to its unusability is of consequence as in stock transfer operations.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a leader made according to the invention; and FIG. 2 is a perspective, somewhat schematic view of a continuous business forms assembly being processed through a printer through the use of a leader made according to the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 3 designated 10. The Y-shaped member includes a base 12 and legs 14 and 16.

According to a prefemed embodiment of the invention, the leader defined by the Y-shaped member 10 is defined by a pair of sheets 18 and 20 of flexible material as, for example, high density polyethylene. The two sheets 18 and 20 are located in contact with each other and in the area of the base 12, are bonded together by any suitable means, while in the area of the legs 14 and 16, are unbonded so that the legs may be separated. in this respect, the boundary between the two areas is designated at 22.

The longitudinal margins of the leader are provided with feeding means, generally designated 24. The precise form of feeding means employed will depend upon the nature of the feeding means in the equipment on which the continuous business forms are to be processed and, conventionally, will include a plurality of apertures 26 spaced on equal centers and commonly known in the art as pin feed holes. The particular spacing between the apertures 26 will correspond to the spacing between similar holes in the margins of the continuous forms assembly with which the leader is to be used and the spacing of feed pins on the feeding mechanism of the data processing apparatus.

The base 12 may also be inscribed with any suitable indicia 28 indicating alignment information. The particular information so located on the base 12 will be dependent upon the particular type of data processing equipment being employed and/or the print locations on the continuous forms to be processed.

Finally, the leader includes, in the forwardmost leg 16 thereof, an enlarged cut out or notch 30. The purpose of the notch 30 is to expose the face of an individual form length of the continuous form located between the legs 14 and 16 so that the same may be suitably inscribed as by a printer.

Referring now to FIG. 2, use of the leader will be described in greater detail. Data processing apparatus, and, specifically, a high speed printer, generally designated 32 is provided for inscribing the individual form lengths of a continuous fonns assembly, generally designated 34. Associated with the printer 32 is a feeding means, generally designated 36. As illustrated, the feeding means 36 includes a driven roll 38 having radially extending feeding pins 40 which may be received in the apertures 26 in the leader as well as apertures 42 in the longitudinal margins of the continuous forms assembly 34. When the roll-38 is driven in thedirection of an arrow 44, the leader and the continuous forms assembly will be driven through the printer 32. While not shown herein, it is normally conventional to provide more than one such roller 38 in a typical printer.

As can be seen from FIG. 2, the width of the leader is substantially equal to the width of the continuous forms assembly 34, the width of the latter being that dimension transverse to the longitudinal extent of the form. In use, the endmost form 46 of the continuous forms assembly 34 is located between the legs 14 and 16 of the leader. Normally, the end edge of the form length 46 will be brought into substantial abutment with the boundary 22 between the legs and the base of the leader and in such a fashion that the apertures 42 are in alignment with the apertures 26 in the legs 14 and 16 of the leader. The end of the continuous business forms assembly 34 will then be frictionally held printer and manually oriented until proper alignment has been achieved. In this respect, it is preferred that the length of the base 12 be sufficient to allow it to be simultaneously engaged with at least two of the feed rolls 38 commonly provided in the printer.

Once the base 12 has been properly oriented with respect to the printing mechanism of the printer 32, as may be determined from the alignment information 28 located on the base 12, the processing operation may be initiated. The endmost form 46 in the assembly 34 will then be properly inscribed at the designated positions through the notch 30 in the leg 16. As a result, there will be no unusable individual form lengths of the assembly resulting from the operation thereby eliminating costly bookkeeping and the like when the nature of the forms is such that their destruction must be recorded.

It will also be appreciated that the use of the leader may be a substantial advantage even when the nature of the forms being processed is not such as to require costly bookkeeping operations if an individual form length is destroyed. For example, where the nature of the forms is such that they are relatively flimsy, the added stiffness offered through the use of the leader may be of material assistance in achieving proper alignment.

I claim:

1. A leader for use with continuous business forms comprising: a generally Y-shaped member formed of a flexible material and adapted to receive an endmost individual form length of a continuous business form and hold the same between the legs thereof, said Y-shaped -member having a width approximately equal to the dimension of the continuous forms assembly with which it is to be used transverse to the longitudinal extent of the continuous forms assembly, and means along at least one margin of said Y -shaped member for cooperating with a feeding means on business form processing machinery whereby said leader may be fed through business form processing machinery; one of said legs including an enlarged notch whereby information can be inscribed on the form length of a continuous business form received and grasped between said legs.

2. A leader according to claim 1 wherein said Y- shaped member is defined by two sheets of flexible material bonded together.

3. A leader for use in initiating the feed of a continuous business form through a printing apparatus or the like, said leader comprising: a member defined by two sheets of flexible material and in substantial abutment with each other and bonded together throughout a portion of their area of contact and being unbonded through the remainder of their area of contact to define flexible and separable legs which are adapted to be separated to receive the endmost individual form length of a continuous business forms assembly and hold the same, said member having aligned pin feed holes extending along opposite margins thereof for registry with pin feed holes along the margins of a continuous business forms assembly, one of the legs of said member including an enlarged cut out portion so that a substantial area of the face of an individual form length of a continuous business forms assembly received and held between said legs is exposed to permit inscription of information thereon by a printing apparatus. 

1. A leader for use with continuous business forms comprising: a generally Y-shaped member formed of a flexible material and adapted to receive an endmost individual form length of a continuous business form and hold the same between the legs thereof, said Y-shaped member having a width approximately equal to the dimension of the continuous forms assembly with which it is to be used transverse to the longitudinal extent of the continuous forms assembly, and means along at least one margin of said Y-shaped member for cooperating with a feeding means on business form processing machinery whereby said leader may be fed through business form processing machinery; one of said legs including an enlarged notch whereby information can be inscribed on the form length of a continuous business form received and grasped between said legs.
 2. A leader according to claim 1 wherein said Y-shaped member is defined by two sheets of flexible material bonded together.
 3. A leader for use in initiating the feed of a continuous business form through a printing apparatus or the like, said leader comprising: a member defined by two sheets of flexible material and in substantial abutment with each other and bonded together throughout a portion of their area of contact and being unbonded through the remainder of their area of contact to define flexible and separable legs which are adapted to be separated to receive the endmost individual form length of a continuous business forms assembly and hold the same, said member having aligned pin feed holes extending along opposite margins thereof for registry with pin feed holes along the margins of a continuous business forms assembly, one of the legs of said member including an enlarged cut out portion so that a substantial area of the face of an individual form length of a continuous business forms assembly received and held between said legs is exposed to permit inscription of information thereon by a printing apparatus. 